The Fuzileiros by John P. Cann

Author:John P. Cann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Africa / General
ISBN: 9781911096825
Publisher: Helion and Company
Published: 2016-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

Fuzileiros from DFE 12 crossing a clearing at the edge of dense bush.

(Source: Corps of Fuzileiros)

Fuzileiros from DFE 12 wading across a bolanha at the edge of the Cacheu River.

(Source: Corps of Fuzileiros)

By 1965, this naval-only mission was under some pressure, and its oversight by the CDMG was viewed by the overall theater commander as out of step with what the army saw as the role of Special Forces. The army little understood the naval dimension of the conflict and the use of the fuzileiros in seemingly routine, unspectacular, but vitally important operations against the waterborne logistics network of the enemy.30 There was a tendency by the army to see fuzileiros as simply another source of specially-trained manpower to undertake operations in the army vision alongside its own Special Forces. The CDMG was forced to bow to army wishes. In February 1967, a directive returned the fuzileiros to CDMG control for naval operations in the Cachu, Cacine and Cumbijã River systems. The launch-fuzileiro teams patrolling these rivers were then able to extend their reach with consequent effectiveness. Control and use changed again with the arrival of General Spínola in 1968 and the implementation of his perceived solutions to immediate security problems. From the strategic view this change was short-sighted, as it broke up an effective launch-fuzileiro team that was denying the use of the rivers to the enemy. In any event, during the final years of the war, squads of fuzileiros were routinely deployed on launches to counter the aggressiveness of the enemy and its ambushes. While this move helped the crews of the launches as a defensive measure, it impeded the fuzileiros in their original mission of continuing the patient and methodical offensive against the enemy logistical system.

Fuzileiros Make Their Mark

On 4 November 1963, the packet boat India disembarked DFE 8 in Bissau, a unit that would become one of the most valorous in the Portuguese armed forces under the leadership of Comandante Guilherme Alpoim Calvão.31 Calvão and DFE 8 received their baptism of fire with Operation ‘Júpiter’ conducted in the region of Jabadá, where they engaged the enemy twice. Shortly thereafter in Operation ‘Trevo’ (‘Shamrock’), conducted between 20 and 29 November, the detachment killed some enemy, captured others and recovered a great deal of diverse war matériel around the village of Darsalame on the left bank of the Cumbijã River and on the Cubisseco Peninsula opposite Como and its sister islands. Two fuzileiros were wounded in the action. While the fuzileiros occupied Darsalame, the commander-in-chief arrived to raise the national flag over the village in an emotional ceremony, as the PAIGC flag had flown there for the preceding eight months.32

Como and its adjacent islands were considered important both to the insurgents and to the Portuguese command for obvious reasons. From the point of view of the insurgents it was a perfect staging point, for it was remote, and this isolation brought with it security. It could be supplied by sea from the sanctuary of Guiné only about 25

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